Fijne Zondag

My last Sunday in Groningen. The sky's just started to turn bright and I think there won't be so much of the sun today. All the shops will be opened at 12 PM, so I don't have much to do in the morning. Breakfast was a cup of coffee, two slices of volkorenbrood with chocolate sprinkles, two lumpia, and a chocolate wafer. I've been eating so much without even think of controlling my calories intake. I admit it hasn't been a very healthy month, but it's only thirty days of guilty pleasure. Yes?

I went out with all of my housemates yesterday. We went to the Noordeplantsoen to take pictures with all those picturesque autumn leaves. Then we had some pies and gigantic spare ribs. It was a nice day..

Kak Cory - Kak Ika - Krystle - Selva - Stevanie - Ci Ren

I meet a lot of new friends here, both Dutch and Indonesians. I am grateful to know each of them. Everyone has their own ups-and-downs stories. Most of them somehow manage to do very great every time they face problems. I feel kinda ashamed because I am the type of person who can easily get broken and all crashed over simple things in life. Now that I've heard their experiences, I hope I can learn to become a better self. 

Two days ago, I went to Giethoorn. Giethoorn is a small village in the northeastern Dutch province of Overijssel. It takes only 90 minutes with train to reach there from Groningen. I never heard of the village until Dad told me about it a month before I came here. Daddy read it from his twitter feeds and he's very excited that time. It's like he's implicitly telling me that I have to go to that place. When I had some days left, he kept on asking me whether I'd go to Giethoorn or not and that upset me a little. But then, I chose to go there over Brussel because I think that'd make daddy happy. So, it wasn't totally my will to go there at first. 

The weather forecast told me that it'd be a shiny day on Friday, but it wasn't at all. It was cloudy and even drizzling that afternoon. I was very mad and disappointed, thinking what's the point of going there with that kind of weather. 

But I was wrong. 

Giethoorn was still amazing despite the gloomy weather. The village consists of cute little houses like those we see in the fairy tale. It has no big roads for cars, so the main transportation there is by foot or by boat. Walking around there gave me that serene feeling. I could see boats slowly passing by and could hear birds chirping. We were lucky because there're only few tourists that day. I heard it can be very crowded and busy during high-season. Well, long story short, thank you Daddy for recommending the place. Hehe.

Inside the bus from Steenwijk to Giethoorn. It's a pure candid by Kak Cory!

Kak Cory inside the boat during canal cruise

One of the houses in the village

It's amazing, isn't it?

By the way, talking about my last day. My flight is at 14.30 tomorrow. However, the Schipol airport is two hours away by train from Groningen. So, I need to leave quite early in the morning. I haven't packed my luggage up until this moment because I suppose I need to buy some more snacks/souvenirs. The problem is.. I came here with 27 kg of baggage and my allowance is only 30 kg. So tell me, how am I supposed to pack all my stuffs-from-home plus all the things I bought here? Well, let's see if I can figure it out in the end. I think it's a 'should', though.

  

Signing off,

Stevanie

Donderdag

Last second day in the hospital. I am freaking out. I am typing this while waiting for the others for the morning report. During this whole month, I've always been waking up at 5 AM, which is very early for people in here (since the sky just turns bright at around 8 AM). I bike to the hospital which takes around 20 - 30 minutes. I always wear at least three layers of clothing with my beanie and gloves because the weather is always around 6 - 8 degree Celcius in the morning. I complain about it to my friends and doctors almost every day. All they say is like, 'Nah, it's normal'. So, yea, I think it is just me.

Talking about the bike, a lot of thing happened in a month. First of all, I lost my bike on my FIFTH day in Groningen. I was all panicked. Who wouldn't? It was borrowed to me by a kind senior and it disappeared. I remembered I cried for like an hour or two. I asked some random men around the parking zone about to whom should I report if I lost my bike. And they just replied: 'If it's gone, it's gone.'

***It's 9 PM now. I just had kaasbroodje, rice cakes, and tuna salad for my supper. Yea. Sigh.

Where were we? Oh. The bike. Ok. So, I also told my intern friends that I'd be late that morning and asked them to tell the doctors about my situation. One respond I remembered the best is: 'Welcome to Groningen! That's the real Dutch experience!' Well.... I then concluded that I should just move on and find a new bike for myself.

Biking is the most favorite means of transportation in Groningen. You can see many bicycles parking here and there. There are bicycle lanes throughout the city with traffic lights especially for cyclists. That basically explains why losing bicycle is a very common thing. It's so ordinary that even if you report it to the police, they won't bother to help much.

Luckily enough, I could borrow a bicycle from another senior the next morning. I  ended up paying some cash to the first senior to make up for my carelessness. My story didn't end there. So the second thing is: Just a few days ago, my bike's front tire started to keep losing air. I pumped it back and forth but the same thing just happens again. So I walked all the way from home to the hospital which is 3 km away. I am just going to take the bus tomorrow!

This morning, I was in the outpatient clinic with a professor. I always love tagging along with him. It's like I've never met someone with such title who is very warm, kind, humble... alles goed!!! I am so glad to have a picture with him! It really made my day! My supervisor is also a really nice woman. I just feel grateful to meet everyone here.

Self-reminder: Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

Signing off, 

Stevanie.

Dinsdag

I deleted my previous blog because it had too many posts that were telling stuffs that are not happening anymore. It will take too much time if I choose to delete one by one. The title of this blog itself is inspired by a friend. I suppose he just randomly typed whatever that popped into his mind, but I think it's great for a blog title. So, welcome to The Complicated Peace.

I am typing this from one of the computers in Centrale Medische Bibliotheek.  So, I've been spending the whole October in Groningen and it's my last week in this town. It's scary how time flies. It feels like just yesterday I felt all excited because it's my first time coming to Europe. I was (and still) amazed by literally everything: to see all the European houses in every corner of the street, to smell all the breads baking from the bakeries, to hear Dutch people talking, to taste the Dutch typical foods, and to feel the fresh air. But it's coming to an end. I have this mixed up feeling of sadness and happiness. Sad because I am not sure if I'll ever get the chance to come back again, but happy on the other hand- because I can't stand the weather any longer. I am lucky enough though, for I come when it's Autumn. I can't imagine how cold it'll be in Winter. 

Other than some heartbreaking moments that happened some weeks ago, life's been treating me very well. How not? I got to learn many new things in Urology Department in UMCG- which is one of the best hospitals worldwide. I got to see many operations technique and interventions that I've never seen during my rotation in Indonesia. I met a lot of interns who are going through pretty much the same thing with me (I mean: the never ending medical school, the on-call shifts, and all. hehe).  And the best thing is that I got to know many professors and urologists that are very humble and kind. Well, so far, I believe this 'October' should be given a reward for being the best month of 2016.  But, who knows what will happen for the rest two months? 

The complicated peace. I think it's a good title because it describes the-current-me very perfectly. I am happy, but sometimes a few simple things annoy me and they can just ruin the whole day. For instance, when I was trying so freaking hard to move on, the ''On This Day'' section in Facebook suddenly showed some old pictures and bang!. I became all gloomy. But no worries, it's not happening anymore. For real! Haha. 

I visited Paris and Amsterdam for the last two weekends. It was amazing. I still have so many countries I want to go, but it's very sad that I only have so little time left! Let's just see how everything turns out in the end.

Signing off,

Stevanie.